Pakistan cracks down on corrupt; Bhutto's father-in-law held
In the first major crackdown on
corruption since Benazir Bhutto's government left power in
disgrace, the police swarmed through two provinces overnight on Thursday raiding the homes of some of Pakistan's rich and influential.
"The crackdown has begun . . . Within one week we expect to
arrest 30 to 40 more people,'' said Najam Sethi, an advisor on
accountability with the interim government.
Among those arrested overnight was Benazir Bhutto's father-in-law,
Hakim Ali Zardari.
He was taken shortly after midnight (early Thursday) from his home in southern
Karachi to a jail, not more than few kilometers from where
his son, Asif, is being held.
Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's husband, has been in jail since
his wife's government was sacked on November 5. He is charged with
murder in connection with the shooting of Bhutto's
brother, Murtaza.
The elder Zardari was arrested on charges of income tax evasion
and bank fraud, said Sethi.
But his family said the police arrived without an arrest
warrant.
"They came in after midnight... They didn't have a warrant
or anything... They just took him away,'' said Munawar Talpur,
his son-in-law.
In the eastern Punjab capital of Lahore police arrested the once
powerful Punjab provincial secretary Aslam Qureshi, also on fraud
charges.
News reports said several other prominent officials in the
former government as well as the opposition were being sought
for questioning.
Among those being named were two former chief ministers of
Punjab and a former interior minister in the Nawaz Sharif
government.
The Anti-Corruption Commission, set up following Bhutto's
dismissal, has come under increasing criticism in recent weeks for
its slow pace.
The head of the commission, retired Judge Ghulam Mirza, earlier
said the task of rooting out the corrupt was a massive one that
could not be rushed.
Transparency International, a Berlin-based group opposed to
corruption, last year said businessmen considered Pakistan the
second most corrupt country in the world.
Bhutto, who left this week to perform the Islamic pilgrimage
of umrah in Saudi Arabia, has accused the president of launching a witch-hunt against her party workers.
President Farooq Leghari used his constitutional authority to
dismiss Bhutto's government on a variety of charges ranging
from sanctioning police hit squads in southern Karachi to stealing
millions of rupees (dollars) from the national exchequer. She has
denied all the charges.
A new tough anti-corruption law promulgated by the president
bans anyone found guilty of corruption from politics for five
years. It also provides for a maximum jail term of 14 years and a
hefty fine, equivalent to the amount taken.
The state-run Pakistan Radio gave no details about Hakim Ali Zardari's arrest, but news reports quoted
unnamed officials of the Federal Investigation Agency as
saying that he was arrested on orders from Islamabad.
Both the father and the son have been widely accused of having an
evil and corrupting influence on Bhutto.
A court had ordered Asif Ali's release on bail, but the caretaker
government kept him in custody because he is accused of conspiring
to murder Murtaza Bhutto.
Murtaza was slain by the police on September 20, starting a chain
of events that culminated in the dismissal of Bhutto. A judicial
commission is investigating the murder.
UNI
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